The Replacement
by Shadow Master
Summary: A BtVSDevil May Cry 3 crossover. It is the night of the Episode 'The Zeppo' and Xander is feeling pretty good about what he has accomplished all on his own. However his victory has also drawn the attention of one other who has been looking for him for qui
1. Chapter 1

"The Replacement" by Shadow Master aka Ryley Breen

email : : This is to make clear that I do not own the Devil May Cry videogames, the characters contained therein or anything really that could be covered by a copyright or patent. I have no money so any kind of legal action taken would most likely wind up costing you, the members of the prosecution, more than me as a member of the defense. So how about we save everyone a lot of unnecessary hassle and billing and just let this one slide. After all I am writing this fanfic purely for my own personal enjoyment and for the enjoyment of the fanfic readers. I am not charging anyone anything to read it nor am a receiving a set sum of money every single time someone clicks on the link and brings up the story on their internet browser. So all in all what I am doing is harmless.

Note : I've been hit by the creative bug again and while some might think that this means I might resume work on some of the fanfics I already have in progress that is not the case. The nasty creative bug may indeed induce creative thought and the urge to put such thoughts down to paper, or in this case a word processing file, but the effects are limited to the thing that infected the person with the creativity bug in the first place. In this case playing the videogame "Devil May Cry 3 : Dante's awakening" infected me with the creativity bug which means that I must now work on a Devil May Cry/BtVS crossover fanfic rather than say my Naruto/BtVS fanfic. Now if I had been watching new episodes of Naruto then that could certainly lead to me resuming work on my Naruto/Buffy the Vampire Slayer crossover fanfic but as that is not the case I am sure you can see where the problem lies. Never fear though because I have every intention of resuming work on my other crossover fanfics but it will have to wait until I get bit by the creativity bug with one of those shows being the trigger. Now it is time to venture into a world unseen by normal mortals and discover the legacy of the Devil Knight Sparda…….

The Replacement Unknown Location, Midnight 

"Have you finished the translation?" a cold and somewhat aloof voice asked with clear ideas of who was in control of this situation.

"Indeed. All that we need in order to undo the Traitor's spell is now known." , replied a much deeper and somehow ominous voice, "Two of the items we already have, the blood of the Betrayer's closest kin and one half of the amulet, but the final piece is in the hands of your brother Dante."

This almost provoked an image of anger on the aristocratic face of the Commander of the operation but it was only temporary. He had always known one way or another he would have to confront his brother before his goal could be accomplished. It had always been that way for them for as long as they had been alive, one intrinsically linked to the other, and so it seemed that Fate desired for them to have one last skirmish before the end.

It was almost fitting in a way.

"Fortunately both the device we're looking for and my worthless brother are in the same city so it won't take long to find him and get what we need." , The Commander stated as if getting the final half of the amulet was a trivial matter, "Begin making preparations for our trip. I want to be there before the celestial bodies are in the proper alignment with room to spare."

"Of course Lord Vergil." Mr. Deep Voice stated as he bowed respectfully with his eyes to the ground.

There he stayed until the door to the room slammed shut and the sounds of Vergil's footsteps could no longer be heard. It was only then that he permitted his true feelings to be known, feelings illustrated by slamming his fist into the wall causing it to shudder violently. It was moments like these that he truly wished he didn't need the brat and his brother alive for what was soon to come. Vergil's aloof demeanor and constant superiority complex were nothing but a source of irritation to him but he knew he had to endure it. He had not been lying when he had said that the blood of one of Sparda's kin was required in order to fulfill their mission. It was his intention to use either all of Vergil's or do a half and half between him and his twin brother depending on how the situation went. Of course the tachi wielding son of Sparda didn't know of this requirement, only that blood was required in addition to all the other items. However what the half-devil didn't know at the moment could fill a stadium and that was just as it pertained to the specifics of their joint venture. One element was already well on her way to meeting his every hope and desire as well as en route to the city that Dante currently resided in.

The other was another matter altogether.

He had been planning this for decades and had gone to great lengths to make sure nothing was left to chance and nothing was missing when it was time for the curtain to go up. It had required, at certain times, that he swallow his pride and assume the most ridiculous guises imaginable but it would be worth it in the end. Now with Vergil gone it was time to finally put the finishing touches on the cornerstone of his 'plan B' and that meant a quick trip to the west coast of America. Locating him had taken painstaking work, sifting through several databases, but now it was time to see if all his effort would bear fruit at long last. Thus with a puff of brimstone and the snap of air rushing in to fill a vacuum the mad priest known as Arkham vanished.

Sunnydale California, One Hour Later 

_I do believe I just managed a miracle!_ Xander thought to himself as he left Sunnydale High School behind him.

It had only been a few minutes ago that he had stared down Jack O'Toole in the basement of the school and forced the undead punk to disarm his own bomb. He knew he had managed to keep a cool face on in front of the walking corpse but during the entire ordeal tonight he had been scared to within an inch of his life. The only thing that had kept him from letting it show was the memory of how his friends had treated him less like a friend and more like a burden. That one memory was all he needed to scrounge up the determination to prove, if only to himself, that he was cut out for the big fight against the demons. It had been touch and go there for a little while but in end he was the big winner and best part of it was he had won without any help from his friends. He had taken on a group of reanimated corpses and stopped them from blowing up both the school and the rest of the gang. He wondered if he should tell them of his great act of heroism tomorrow and rub in their faces that he wasn't the wimpy tag-along they all thought he was. It was a pretty appealing image but then again keeping quiet while just letting them wonder why he was in such a good mood was also a tempting option. In the end though he decided it would probably be best to just sleep on it and decide tomorrow. He was already beginning to feel the adrenaline rush wearing off and he knew that within the hour he would be dead tired. He just hoped that he didn't run into any vamps on his way or else he might be in some real trouble.

_Who is that?_ Xander thought as he looked down the street and saw what looked like a bald priest standing beneath a streetlight looking in his direction.

A cold wind then blew over him and he was forced to blink in order to let his eyelids lubricate his eyeballs but when he looked back to examine the priest further he was surprise to find nothing but empty air where Father Baldy had been before. Well not exactly empty air as Xander noticed a black rectangular box lying on the ground next to the streetlight. For a moment his brain was telling him that he should just keep on walking and ignore the ominous box since something like this just screamed 'paranormal' which usually led to trouble for him. However his heart, which was where he was sure his curious nature lived, was intrigued by the puzzle that had been presented to him and compelled him to try and solve it. Thus a war was raged between his common sense telling him to go home to bed and his heart which was telling him that everything would be fine. Surprisingly it didn't take long to decide what to do. His mind hadn't had a serious workout in a long time while his heart might as well have been Superman by comparison.

Walking over he saw that the box was roughly as long and as wide as your typical full-length mirror but as far as thickness went it was barely a foot. It kinda reminded him of those fancy cases that people put rifles or sometimes very big musical instruments into because the metal it was made of sure was shiny enough. It was completely black in color, like the night, but engraved at the top where most old wooden caskets would have had a cross there was this odd symbol. It reminded him of a bat with its wings outstretched except smack dab in the middle of the wings was what looked like a humanoid or maybe a demon's face. It wasn't detailed enough so he could make out specific features but rather more like those ink blot tests they had been shown in sixth grade where what was seen depended on the mind of the person looking at them. He was probably just imagining things when he saw the demon mixed with the bad wings. After all he had been fighting demons for so long with his friends it was no wonder that he would picture a demon's face out of the random shapes of gold. In any case the impressive appearance of the box only egged him on even more so as he figured even if it was something he couldn't use there was probably a reward out for its safe return.

Flipping the latches on the side he opened the case carefully and was surprised and slightly in awe of the sight he saw. There resting in their sheaths were two twin kodachi which he could easily tell were virtually identical in appearance with the exception of the symbols on their hilts. One was the Japanese symbol for lightning whereas on the other kodachi's hilt was the Japanese symbol for earth if he remembered the language correctly from Giles' books. In the corners of the box, the top right and the bottom left, looked like army issue service revolvers but were obviously meant for battle rather than show based on how durable the metal they were made out of looked. Unlike the kodachis the guns didn't have any weird symbols on them but they were a rather odd combination of colors. One was a golden color, like honey, while the other one was silvery in color but not the kind of color most people would attribute with metal. All in all it was a rather odd collection of weapons but they made sense tactics-wise. The guns could be used for long-range attacks whereas the twin kodachi could be used for close range combat. If he remembered G-Man's long-winded attempt to broaden Buffy's knowledge of weaponry the Kodachi was primarily a defensive weapon that was extremely difficult to get by when wielded by a competent master.

_I wonder why that priest left something like this for me? _Xander thought with as that could be the only reason why the man had been there one minute then replaced with the box the next minute.

However the Fates had apparently decided to capitalize on his inattention to his surroundings as within the space between breaths his senses went kablooey as they had only done before when in a demon's lair. Whipping his head around he spotted the large group of demons behind them but unlike the animal or disgusting demons he was used to these looked like stand-ins for the Grim Reaper. Wearing black robes and wielding scythes the only reason why the Zeppo believed them to be demons rather than ghosts were the rotting limbs sticking out from the ratty ended robes. Only the lower arms and legs were visible but at that point in time Xander was more concerned with the fact that they were advancing towards him than what they looked like.

Deciding to take advantage of the priest's gift he grabbed both guns out of their holsters and after disengaging the safeties began to rain bullets at the mini-Reapers. He knew he should probably try and conserve ammunition given that he didn't spot any extra clips in the box but right now all he wanted was a nice buffer zone between him and these demons. Fortunately his possession by the soldier during the Halloween spell had given him pretty good aim and it seemed that only one hit to vital area was needed to kill one of these things. For a moment he was concerned that these might actually be humans that had been experimented on by demons in order to create expendable foot soldiers. However after seeing a few transform into sand much like vamps turned into dust when you staked them he was certain that these were not human beings he was mowing down. When he had about ten feet of breathing space on all sides available he decided to take stock of his options and see if running was one of them.

Unfortunately whoever had sent these things after him had obviously anticipated this course of action and made sure to put the demons on all sides with slightly denser concentrations around the best escape routes. All of the streets were filled and most of the rooftops had at least four of these mini-Reapers on them. Which meant that escaping the normal way was not an option. The only chance he could see was to break into one of the stores and hope that he could find an access point to the sewer system. He cringed at the thought of imitating deadboy's means of traveling during the day but it would allow him to bypass these demons and escape.

Looking down at the twin kodachi still resting in the box he figured it would be a bad idea to leave them hear for the demons to play with so after stuffing the guns in the back of his pants he grabbed the twin swords and slid them underneath his belt. When his attention returned to the enemies surrounding him he found that it was very fortunate that he had done so because it was all that saved him from being split in two. Sliding to the side he pulled one of his guns from the back of his pants and waited for the head of the mini-Reaper to cross into its line of fire before firing. Like magic the demon dropped to the ground as a pile of sand when the bullet hit but celebrating was quite an unwise thing to do as his ten feet of breathing space was quickly becoming five feet. Deciding to make his move he charged in the direction of a nearby grocery store while shooting any of the demons that made the mistake of getting in his way. Not bothering to worry about the repair bill he shot the door handle out and was thankful when the door breezed open to admit him.

He admitted that it may have been a bit reckless to destroy the lock as it might have been useful in keeping those things outside but he doubted the door would have held up for very long against the mini-Reapers' scythes. Heading to the back where the deliveries were made and the food was stored he hoped he'd find a storm drain or grate that he could remove to get into the sewers. However no sooner did the doors to the back swing aside then he cursed himself for underestimating the leader behind this small army of demons. Five lizard-like demons with claw shaped blades in their hands stood in a semi-circle around the door he had just passed through. Bringing his guns to bear he was about to open fire but before he could squeeze either trigger one of the lizard demons threw a metal talon at them knocking them from his hands. They scraped across the floor before sliding in between two boxes and from there out of sight. Cursing his luck he wasted no time pulling the two kodachi from their sheaths and brandishing them in as competent a manner as he could hope for give his limited experience. He did not have to wait for them to make the first move as they charged him all at once. While this was by no means a hopeless situation since they were all big enough that they would probably wind up getting in the way of their teammates' attacks. That would at least give him some kind of chance of getting out of this mess in one piece with all limbs and essential organs intact.

Ducking under the swing by lizard number one he slashed at its armor plated stomach to test just how durable the metal was and just how sharp the kodachi were in the first place. There was some definite resistance when the two pieces of metal connected but it took only a few seconds for the brown-eyed Harris to realize that not a lot of damage had been done. Either he hadn't put enough power behind the slash or the armor lizard-boy was wearing was more durable that it looked. However he didn't have time to worry about such things as he leapt backwards in order to avoid a swing from lizard number two. Lady Luck seemed to be with him on this because while lizard number two may have missed him lizard number one wasn't so lucky. The large scimitar like sword that lizard two wielded nicely sliced off lizard number one's arm at the elbow joint sending L1(lizard one)'s sword to the ground. L1 roared in pain but oddly enough no blood dripped from the wound at all and once the initial pain was out of the way L1 picked up his sword with his still attached arm and looked back in the Zeppo's direction.

_Man! What I wouldn't do right now for some **major** Slayerly assistance right now!_ He thought as lizard three decided to make his move with an aggressive lunge.

Using his good right arm and the kodachi in his right hand he barely managed to parry the blade L3 was using so that it missed him and hit nothing but air. Letting his right kodachi slide up the blade of the much larger sword he was blessed with a choice opportunity and so he took it. With a single vicious slash he cut open L3's throat and watched, momentarily, with some satisfaction as this wound seemed to be considered more serious than losing an arm. L3 clutched at it's throat in a vain attempt to keep the blood in but it all too soon became apparent that it would need more than that to keep the inevitable from happening. The Zeppo however didn't have time to ponder this however as lizards one, two, four and five decided to go with the 'rush him all at once' tactic again. However with the opening left by the now dead L3 he had an escape route to go down and did not hesitate to beat some serious feet away from the murderous lizards. Unfortunately he quickly came to realize that while trying to face them head on was dangerous turning his back on them was almost suicidal. That point was hit home rather painfully when one of their claw like throwing blades 'thunked' into his right shoulder with all the tact and subtlety he had come to expect from Cordy's mouth. The attack had almost caused him to drop the kodachi in his right hand but he willed his fingers to remain clenched around it.

Turning down a hallway just in time to avoid receiving yet another throwing blade in the back he smiled slightly at the fact that this hallway was much narrower than the room he had confronted the lizards in moments ago. Here they would have no choice but to face him one on one and as he had already proven that he could take down these demons in a one-on-one fight he actually started to believe that he could win this fight. Just like toy soldiers all ready to be knocked down one after another the four lizards that remained lumbered down the hallway towards him. Raising his left kodachi while keeping the right one closer to his body in a guard position he knew that with his right shoulder messed up like it was that his left arm was going to have to do the heavy work. He could still move his right arm but with the shoulder the way it was moving it would be painful enough without the added stress of keeping the sharp and pointy weapons away from his delicate skin. He watched as the first lizard in the line up drew his sword but almost did a double take when he saw the lizard try and hold his sword horizontally. Apparently not only did the hallway force the demon lizards to face him one-on-one but it also limited the range of movement for their weapons to vertical slashes and thrusts.

_I **so** have to remember what I did in the past twenty-four hours to earn this kind of good luck!_ , Xander thought as he felt his chances for survival increase again, _Maybe if I figure out the trick behind it I can use it to up my grades or win the lottery._

Unfortunately he would later reflect that Lady Luck seemed to frown on people using her gifts for selfish personal gain because no sooner did he finish his self centered thought than he felt a sharp pricking sensation in the back of his neck. Reaching around he discovered that something was sticking out of his neck and with a slight jerk he pulled it out. Bringing it before his eyes with slightly more sluggish movements than were normal for him he saw that it was some kind of dart. It took his increasingly foggy mind a few minutes to connect the dots but eventually the information he sought clicked into place.

"A tranquilizer d-dart? Nnnooo f-fair!" he slurred out angrily before dropping face first to the ground and surrendering to the darkness.

Same Place, Thirty Seconds Later 

"It seems I chose well." , Arkham said as he looked down at the unconscious form of his latest acquisition, "Yes he'll do nicely once the proper changes have been made."

It had been a relatively simple matter to pique the boy's interest with the weapon's case he had acquired and then to summon the Blades and minion Vanguards to attack him. He had begun to believe that the boy was no more skilled than any other mortal on this pathetic world but that had been before his subject had executed a move typical of a son of Sparda. He had been quite pleased to see the boy dodge the minion Vanguard and then shoot it in the head as it crossed the weapon's line of fire. From there his estimation of the boy's skills had only grown as he had managed to maim on Blade demon and slay another quite skillfully. True if he were to meet a true opponent such as Vergil or his idiot brother Dante he wouldn't last five seconds but fortunately he had already taken it into account when he had set this plan into motion.

"Take him to the Great Hall and await my arrival." , Arkham said ordering the Blade demons in front of him, "Understand that he is not to be harmed more than he already is. Failure to obey this order will prove quite **unpleasant**."

The Blade demons nodded and moved to pick up the unconscious human on the ground while keeping their more carnivorous impulses at bay despite the scent of blood in the air. They disappeared in an explosion of brimstone leaving the scarred priest to contemplate the next phase of his contingency plan. Now that he had the biological portion of the plan all that was required was the demonic energy requisite in order for the necessary specifications to be met. While demonic power of that variety wasn't entirely difficult for him to acquire he needed a dead on match or else his new pet project would never past the tests that awaited him. In all practicality finding the boy had proven to be the easier of the two tasks. Oh he had been forced to sift through many records and trace numerous family trees in order to find what he sought but in the end it had been rather simple to solve the problem. Acquiring the demonic energy he needed however proved to be significantly more difficult as there had been many obstacles put in place to stop just such a search. Fortunately he had been able to manipulate Vergil into funding his excursions around the world and now it was all about to pay off.

Taking a moment to summon the boy's weapons to him one could almost say that he was on the verge of a smile. However it would soon become known that to see the mad priest Arkham smile was to see a harbinger of the End of the World.

A Hilltop Graveyard, America, Thirty Minutes Later 

"Damn it! Why do I have to do all the work at night?" muttered Andrew Anderson as he continue to do maintenance on the grave in front of him.

The weather seemed to echo his mood as rumbling thunder boomed in the skies above leaving Andrew to curse his luck again as he figured it would likely rain tonight. While the rain itself would be a bother the fact that he would have to continue to work on the graves despite the rain was what really bothered him. His boss and head caretaker of the graveyard was a stickler for dedication to one's job which meant that no matter what the weather was like you were expected to do it on time no matter what. This of course had probably been the cause of the high turnaround for this job. A lot of people had done this job before him but most had up and quit within a month or two. He probably would have quit himself if he didn't need the job so badly but if he had to choose between a roof over his head and living on the streets than he could put up with this for awhile longer.

_At least until something more bearable comes along that is!_ He thought to himself as he finished cleaning the last of the grime off of the headstone in front of him.

As he stood up from his kneeling position he noticed a lone figure standing before one of the more elaborate mausoleums in the graveyard. He could tell the man was dressed all in black and was bald but from this distance that was all he could tell without getting closer. However when he pondered taking such an action he was filled with a certain sense of dread and discomfort. This made him rethink his idea of getting a closer look.

It was a good thing he had rethought the matter for as he watched the unknown man approach the mausoleum an unearthly crimson glow seemed to emerge from within the stones used it the building's construction. If that wasn't scary enough the ground began to shake ominously ending only after two ten foot tall minotaurs wielding battle axes finishing clawing out of the earth in front of the Mausoleum. The Andrew trembled at the supernatural sight and for a moment considered yelling at the bald man to run away while he still could but then his own self-preservation instincts kicked in. If he raised his voice and let his presence become known the minotaurs might decide to come after him as well. Now Andrew wasn't a selfish man for the most part and generally tried to do the right thing when the opportunity arose. However right now doing the right thing would get him killed and thus prevent him from doing many more right things in the future so he figured the needs of the many outweighed the needs of the few or the one in this case. So there he stood waiting for the gruesome scene of the mysterious stranger being hacked into meaty red chunks but he soon found that his expectations were for naught.

As one of the minotaurs brought it's axe down to cleave the man in two the stranger seemed to disappear only to reappear two feet to the right of where the stone monster's axe impacted on the ground. There was a flash of steel and in the time it took Andrew Anderson to blink both of the minotaur's hands were cut off at the wrist. The animated rock seemed to examine the damage for a moment before charging the man with the intention of using the stone stumps like battering rams. This proved useless as the man pulled another disappearing act but this time reappearing behind the minotaur and for a moment both of them were motionless. This did not last as less than three seconds later the stone beast fell to the ground cut into three neat little pieces. The second minotaur attempted to take advantage of the unusual man's turned back but it proved equally useless as with a single thrust of the man's right arm something metallic flew from his hand. With all the appearances of a puppet's strings being cut the second minotaur fell to the ground lifeless leaving no one but the mystery man standing.

It had all taken place in under a minute from start to finish and left Andrew Anderson re-evaluating his career options. Leaving his maintenance gear where it was he ran for the graveyard entrance as fast as he could. No job was worth this! Later he would reflect that leaving was twice as good as he would have thought as he no doubt get blamed with the damage to the earth in front of the mausoleum. However in the days to come the problems of one lowly graveyard laborer would prove to be meaningless and a new force would be born. Whether this would be a force for good or evil was unknown but given the atmosphere of the moment there was no doubt it would be historical.

The Great Cathedral, The Following Night, Ten Minutes to Midnight 

_Ohhhh! You'd think after two and a half years demon slaying I'd get used to getting knocked out._ Xander thought to himself as he tried to ignore the pain in his shoulder.

He tried to sit up but quickly discovered that both his arms and his legs were tied down to whatever he was laying on not allowing him more than a few inches of movement in any direction. With that realization came several others as he noticed quickly the absence of his shirt along with his shoes and socks. Turning his head to the left and right he saw that he was tied down to some kind of weird rock that looked like a cross between a boulder and a platform of some kind. It reminded him kinda of the stone coffins that you sometime found in mausoleums except that whoever had been commissioned to make this one had serious problems with his chiseling technique. Turning his attention from what he was laying to where exactly he was as well as how much trouble he had gotten himself into now.

He seemed to be in some kind of artificial cave for while there were a few splotches of raw rock here and there signs of rock carving were also present. On the far wall though was a beautiful stain glass window that actually seemed to let some moonlight in hinting that this place was near the surface rather than deep in the ground. It looked like a cross between Grecian architecture and something else but for the life of him he couldn't figure out what. In any case it didn't take a genius to see that this was one of those 'top ten places to hold an evil ceremony' locations which meant nothing but badness as far as he was concerned. What was it with him and getting turned into a living sacrifice! Did demons have some infernal intranet bulletin board where he was listed as the most suitable human for sacrificial ceremonies! In any case at least he didn't have to worry about being picked for sacrifices because he was a virgin anymore. Thanks to Faith showing her 'gratitude' along with everything else for rescuing her from the she-demon that had been pummeling her he was officially off that particular ritual list. However knowing his luck though he had probably just jumped from the 'virgin sacrifices' list to the 'made love to a Slayer' list of potential live sacrifices.

Just as he was about to dive into a mental rant about the unfairness of his life the sound of shoes on stone reached his ears and he turned to the only door in the room to see the bald priest that had started this whole mess.

"Ah I see you're finally awake. Excellent." The man said in a voice that one expected to hear from a consortium member from 'The X-Files'.

"Hey Father Baldy! I know I didn't put five bucks in the collection plate last Sunday but is this really necessary?" Xander asked sarcastically as he tried to use the creation of banter to keep the uneasiness that was within him at bay.

"Splendid. You seem to share Dante's chatterbox mentality." , Father Baldy stated only taking minimal offense at the youth's sarcasm, "This should make things go even smoother than I had planned."

"Planned? I hope it has nothing to do with whips and leather outfits because, sorry, I don't swing that way." Xander said as his emotional discomfort grew with every passing moment of not knowing what this guy had planned for him.

"Don't worry. I doubt very much there'll much of **that** in the next few hours." , Father Baldy said as he picked up a tray with several nasty looking tools on it from someplace next to the platform on Xander's right, "Although I will admit that I expect to feel some satisfaction in seeing how long you can endure the pain before losing consciousness."

_Okay! This is so **not** of the good!_ Xander thought as he tested the restraints on his arms and legs to see just how strong they were.

When that didn't work he decided that if he couldn't get free than he could at least squeeze this guy for information about what was about to happen. Maybe if he asked the right questions and got the right answers Giles might be able to figure out how to reverse it. That was assuming of course that he survived this little debacle and didn't die a horrible, painful death.

"So what's with the bondage and sharp objects Scarface?" , Xander asked noticing for the first time the nasty marks on the right side of the man's face, "If you wanted to give me some funky new tattoos or something you should have asked first."

"Let's just say that my partner and I have a rather important project coming up and I want to make sure all our 'bases' are covered." , Scarface replied as he picked up a rather evil looking scalpel, "Now this may cause some rather extreme pain so please feel free to scream if you want to."

Xander tried to say something defiant and manly but unfortunately the pain he experienced over the next few hours made that impossible. The best he was able to manage was to hold in the screams for the first three hours but after that any strength he had to resist was lost.

The Great Cathedral, 6:30 a.m 

"Now all that needs to be done is to wait to see if the procedure was successful." Arkham said to himself as he used a white towel to clean the blood from his hands.

It had taken roughly six hours from beginning to end to finish all that he had to do but in the end the results were promising. The boy had shown an extraordinary resistance to pain and even when he finally did scream the pain induced in his body caused him to lose consciousness soon afterwards. Still his body was taking well to the foreign energy in his body and assuming there were no complications during the day he should be able to return and view the end result late in the coming evening. Right now though he had to return for his meeting with that brat of Sparda's Vergil to finalize the plans for their 'trip'. The half-devil hadn't even considered the possibility that there might be more to his 'faithful servant' Arkham than appearances would lead one to believe. Teleportation was just one of the abilities that he was capable of and that had allowed him to not only find this place months ago but also ensure that 'Xander' here would be in ready in time. It wouldn't due if he had to delay both Vergil and his brother Dante until the boy arrived so performing the procedure here solved two of his problems at once.

_True I am betting quite a lot on this young man but I'd say it's a safe bet._ Arkham thought to himself as he walked towards the exit.

Yes it was a bet he had little fear of losing. He had spent months, ever since he had first met Vergil and began to make some progress in the search for the exact location of 'The Temen-ni-gru'. Much of the records of the tower had been destroyed by those devoted to the beings of heaven millennia ago but some still remained hidden in the dark places of the world. Over the years he had managed to learn much about the ancient structure and how it worked and it had only been recently that the final bits of information had come into his possession. Now it was nearly curtain time and assuming the young man before him underwent the changes he desired the chances of failure were all but eliminated.

_Soon._ Arkham thought before he teleported back to the gothic mansion where he resided with his 'Master' Vergil.

When the familiar surroundings of his room manifested out of the cloud of brimstone that accompanied his teleportation ability cleared he could see a few things out of place. Since none of the lowly demons that guarded this place would dare to even enter the room much less touch any of his belongings he could only assume that Vergil had come looking for him. Sighing with annoyance he figured that he had better find the aloof Son of Sparda and try to account for his time missing with some useful piece of fiction. Taking a few spare moments to straighten a few things on his desk and pick two books off the floor he then left the room and headed for the main conference room. The building they resided in had once belonged to one of America's most illustrious founding fathers and so a great many of the rooms were designed with large meetings in mind. Fortunately it had taken little to convince the previous owners to 'sell' the property but when they didn't move out the door fast enough he had sent a couple of Sin Scythes to help them. Needless to say the Paterson family was never heard from again and no one was tardy in their presence again either.

Upon opening the door to the conference hall he saw the annoyed snow haired young man standing in front of the fireplace staring into the flickering flames.

"Where were you?" Vergil asked in an icy tone that demanded an answer.

"I needed to tie up some loose ends before we departed." , Arkham replied in a humble tone of voice, "Some of the demons we acquired some resources from discovered our deceptions a little sooner than expected."

This seemed to placate the devil-human hybrid somewhat but he still asked "I trust that there won't be any other nuisances showing up anytime soon?"

"No sir. After dispatching the first group I made certain 'arrangements' to make sure than any other acquaintances that could cause us problems were dealt with." Arkham replied obediently although internally he was picturing the numerous ways he was going to kill Vergil when this was all over.

"Good. We should be on our way." , Vergil said as he picked up his tachi from the chair behind him, "Our flight leaves in two hours and I don't need to inform you what the consequences will be if we are late arriving at our destination."

Watching the Son of Sparda strap the sword to his waist the man known as Arkham quietly seethed at the arrogance of this half-human filth. If he wasn't so vital to the plan Sparda's cocky blue blood son would learn quite quickly the difference between a half-demon and a full one.

Xander's Mindscape, Noon 

He wasn't sure how long he had been in this surreal landscape or how long he had been there but one thing Xander did know was that he wanted out. He was walking through what looked like a gothic styled castle but the dimensions of the doors and ceilings were much too big for even the most eccentric architect to consider. There were also quite a few odd looking statues that look scarily detailed and demonic unlike the generic gargoyles that most have come to expect. He had been walking around the place for what seemed like hours but no matter what he did it seemed like he was being directed somewhere. Doors that he knew for a fact that he had left behind him suddenly reappeared a fair distance away from where they were supposed to be. Still it wasn't like he had any other ideas of where to go or how to get back home so he might as well see where this gut feeling of his was taking him.

Almost as if the environment sensed that he was no longer trying to resist the path it had laid out for him he ceased coming upon doors he had seen before as well as hallways he had already walked down. However it wasn't until he had reached what he guessed was the third floor of the castle that he seemed to reach his destination. There was a large door at the end of the hallway and it seemed to possess an unearthly glow to it that called to his soul. Upon reaching it he pushed it open only to reflexively try and grab a weapon but found that he could not as his body seemed to decide now was a time to move on its own. Not exactly a good thing considering that standing in front of him was one of the most intimidating looking demons he had ever seen. At least seven feet tall, maybe eight with the wings, stood on the other side of the room and turned to look at him upon hearing the door open.

"Do you have what I asked for?" came his voice from lips that no longer obeyed his commands.

"Yes. I still think you are crazy old friend for even thinking this." , the demon said in a voice that sounded like Darth Vader with a cold, "Our kind already has dominion over much of the demon realms and is on the verge of conquering this new dimension even as we speak. What possible chance could you have of succeeding?"

"Perhaps none but there is no other choice now my friend." , his voice replied before joining the demon on the other side of the room, "By now Mundus and the other Lords of Hell have noticed my actions. They will send their best to try and stop me from proceeding with my plan. Still I thank you my friend for doing this much for me even though you didn't have to."

"Sparda you are one of the most powerful and skilled of the Devil Knights and I have learned much from you." , the demon said placing one hand on his right shoulder, "Now get going before Mundus' flunkies arrive and start trashing my new place."

"You're new place?" his voice asked with some amusement.

"Of course! Who do you think is going to inherit it when you're named a traitor?" the demon replied with no little bit of humor.

Both of them chuckled at that as the demon reached out with his left arm to place something in **Sparda's** right hand. When the object was in his right hand and the demon's arm withdrew Xander was a bit impressed with the crude but at the same time beautiful looking amulet in his hand. While it looked to be alone piece he could tell from the slits in the side that it could be separated into two pieces if necessary. Two precious stones were embedded into the dark metal, a crimson one and an amber one, one on each side of the amulet. Connected to a shiny silver chain it would make for an impressive gift for any she-demon but Xander had a gut feeling that this item had another purpose. However before the demon could say anything more on the subject all of Xander's senses suddenly went wonky and the world before his eyes looked like gasoline diluted with water and then dumped on concrete. Colors, shapes, movement all became distorted to the point where the Zeppo didn't know whether the black blob he was looking at was a cloud or a cannon ball flying at his head. Eventually though everything settled down but when he got a good look around him he wished that his senses were still out of whack like a TV whose antenna wasn't quite in the right position.

He was now in some kind of limbo standing atop a rocky outcropping that seemed to be covered in a thing layer of snow. That in and of itself was odd enough as the gray expanse of the limbo seemed to stretch out in all directions but unfortunately there was more pressing things demanding his attention. All around him in a seeming unending horde were demons of all sizes and descriptions with every single one of them seemed intent on rending him to pieces to matter what it took. Fortunately his body seemed to have just as fierce a sense of self-preservation as he did since it took over once again using this huge broadsword to slice and dice demons by the dozens. He couldn't see everything his body was doing as he was limited to what he could view with his eyes and the direction they were aimed at but it looked like he was doing pretty good despite the odds.

At least until he spotted the King Kong sized demons coming up fast from behind the smaller and more numerous demons he was currently dealing with.

His body seemed to notice them to for with a powerful three hundred and sixty degree slash of his sword all of the demons in the blade's path were destroyed whereas those just beyond the weapon's reach were blown back by awesome crimson energy. With the immediate perimeter cleared his body decided that now was the time to make his big play and with a mighty show of strength he plunged his sword into the stone beneath his feet. From this came a chain reaction light show unlike anything Industrial Light and Magic or most seasoned magic users could accomplish in their **dreams**. A dense storm of demonic energy swirled around him and the stones beneath him shuddered under the pressure of the power being gathered. Then without warning two columns of lightning shot out from the cloud, one golden and the other crimson, heading in two different directions. The golden bolt headed towards the demons and after cutting through a large chunk of their ranks seemed to merge with a portal that connected this limbo to Hell. Within seconds of contact a mighty vacuum emerged from the direction of the Hell portal drawing all caught within its grip back to the realm that they had sprung from. Even the larger, more powerful, demons were helpless to resist but despite this rapidly apparent fact they still defied the suction force that was drawing them back to their realm. The other bolt of lightning slammed into another portal opposite the one that led to Hell but instead of a powerful suction force the portal seemed to destabilize. The image of a massive tower and what appeared to be a city on the other side flickered and the diameter of the portal seemed to be shrinking with every passing second.

Giving one final surge of power to both bolts he released his sword and raised arms so that one was positioned on either side of the blade as well as above it. Chanting words that the Zeppo didn't even know existed much less know he could pronounced flowed from his lips. With greater and greater passion they came until in a flash a ball of light sprang from his sword and eventually took on the form of the amulet the demon had given him earlier. Grasping the amulet with both hands he gave it a quick twist vertically turning the one amulet into two. However he had no time to puzzle over the matter as his body turned around and took to the air flying towards the portal to the tower and perhaps the human world. For some reason though it seemed to him as though he was flying slower than normal even though he knew for a fact that he had never flown under his own power before in his life.

Passing through the portal he looked down at the top of the tower and saw someone waiting for him, a woman, but before he could discern more his senses blurred once again changing the scenery once more.

This time he found himself in a massive dark expanse with only the tiniest pinpricks of white light scatter amongst the inky blackness around him. He seemed to be standing on a piece of earth that had been ripped up from the ground and levitated high into the air by some unseen force. The atmosphere around him was ominous and he could feel the growing tension in air rising moment by moment. He knew these sensations, he felt them every time he had followed the gang into a demon nest or some other place equally filled with badness. It was the feeling of alertness that hinted at combat that could break out at any moment and the unusual sword in his right hand confirmed it. It looked almost organic in nature but more than that it looked like an odd combination of a sword and a scythe even though his mind had latched onto calling it a sword. It had a two handed grip and the usual double U shaped object where the blade met the handle but the blade itself was thin like a fencer's sword. At the top was a crescent moon shaped scythe blade that arced from the tip of the original blade down to the other end of the sword. An unusual design if he ever saw one but as the tension in the air suddenly took a leap upwards in severity he took his attention off the sword and looked at his surroundings.

"You **dare** to oppose **me** traitor?" a booming voice asked angrily as three glowing eyes materialized from the darkness.

"I would challenge death itself to protect this world Mundus and you are not death!" his voice replied defiantly as he raised his sword into a fighting stance.

"Perhaps not Death incarnate but most certainly your death Traitor!" Mundus roared and with that the battle was joined.

In a flash of light not only did a stone angel appear ready for battle but Xander also could feel a strange surge of power flow over him. Before he had time to figure it out both he and the stone angel took to the sky (assuming it was the sky and not something else) and engaged in a battle reminiscent of David and Goliath. Mundus dwarfed Xander/Sparda in size leaving him only with his superior aerial maneuverability to keep him from being pummeled by the large stone fists or sliced by the stone sword. Mundus on the other hand while not exactly lacking in the speed department was a considerably larger target and so with ever attack the demon lord failed to connect with he received twin slashes on the attacking arm. Eventually this 'close quarters combat' caused Mundus so much frustration that he abandoned trying to hack Xander/Sparda in half and began to fire bolts of potent hellfire both from his hands and each of his three eyes. This proved to be slightly more effective as it forced Xander's body to put some distance between himself and Mundus in order to acquire enough room for dodging. From there it turned to be a simple exchanging of fire with him somehow firing balls of flame at Mundus whereas the Devil Lord's attacks took the form of sharp, pointy, spear-like energy projectiles. Blasts of death were exchanged but despite the skill of one warrior and the sheer power of another neither combatant seemed to be able to manage any serious progress in defeating their hated foe.

However it was not the lack of damage that he was doing to Mundus that worried Xander the most. No it was the fact that he could feel a steady rise in demonic energy growing, almost as if a portal to the demon world was beginning to open. It seemed that his body had caught onto that as well as he stopped attacking his enemy and instead began to stretch out his senses to the surrounding area and beyond.

"No." his voice whispered in horror as it realized that apparently there was a portal to the demon world beginning to open.

However that moment of shock and inattention was all Mundus needed to deliver a devastating blow. In a flash of movement and power that both Xander and whoever was using his mouth barely sensed Mundus threw a spear of energy more potent than any that had been thrown thus far. To late was it for them to dodge it and it was much too powerful for blocking to be a viable option either. In the space it takes for a person to take a breath the spear of light connected impaling him through the stomach. Organs were torn and flesh did burn as the demonic bolt did its worst to take his life from him. However he was not willing to give up just yet and with yell of defiance he destroyed the bolt causing it to shatter into pieces before disappearing altogether. Still in great pain he still had the willpower to stay aloft apparently but from the laughter that came from the demon Lord Mundus the monster seemed to think the battle was his. However it seemed that this Sparda and Xander were of a like mind in the sense that they refused to let it end like this. In a moment of what most people would call insanity they charged the demon Lord head on taking him by complete surprise. This surprise enabled them to deliver two vicious blows in the form of a deep gash across Mundus' chest and another across the demon Lord's face. Lord Mundus reared back in pain as one of his hands reflexively grasped his face in an attempt to stop the pain as well as the flow of demonic blood. It was then, just as Mundus had done moments before, that Sparda took advantage of this one opening and fired almost all of his remaining demonic power at his enemy.

A storm of crimson lightning rained down on Mundus with intense savagery as it tore through the Lord's stone skin as though it were nothing. Within minutes it looked as though Mundus had suffered as much damage as Xander/Sparda had himself sustained but that was not the end of Sparda's one potent strike. As if summoned by some force the various bolts of demonic lightning stopped their assault on Mundus and began to merge into a single sphere of energy mere feet from the demon's chest. Grow and grow it did until it was the size of a wrecking ball and then with a single flicker of light it exploded releasing all its accumulated energy in one massive blast. This had two effects: first it knocked the demon Lord Mundus clear off his feet and it seemed to destabilize the portal that was forming between the Earth Realm and the Demon world. Lowering himself to the ground Xander felt the energy that had been with him throughout the battle with Mundus disappear as if Sparda had pressed an off switch or something. However that only served to intensify the pain that Sparda and somehow Xander as well were feeling from Mundus' sneak attack. Knowing their weak condition it seemed Sparda decided to use words rather than his weapons to fight his enemy now.

"Your plan seems to be failing Mundus! The portal destabilizes even as we speak and you are gravely injured!" , his voice said arrogantly even though that was not how he truly felt, "As I did before so have I done now! The human world is safe once again!"

This only seemed to be amusing to the Dark Lord Mundus as the monster began to laugh despite the pain it seemed to cause him.

"Do you find something amusing oh great Lord?" Sparda asked as a feeling of dread began to rise within him.

"Yes! I find it amusing that even with all the evidence presented to you that you still have not discerned the true nature of the portal." , Mundus replied with vicious glee, "You see I could not have even opened the portal if you had not come to try and stop me! The portal will remain open and I have you to thank for it! AHAHAHAHAHA!"

For unknown minutes the hall was silent with the exception of the victorious laughter of the Demon Lord as Sparda's mind no doubt raced to deduce the answer to his enemy's words. Then it seemed to hit him as his eyes looked down to the amulet that hung from a chain around his neck and in that moment Sparda knew what Mundus was implying. Xander caught on as well even though he was sure this Sparda guy knew the details better than he did. It was the very presence of the amulet that Sparda had used to seal the portal between the human world and the demon world almost two thousand years earlier that was causing this calamity. Even though it was dormant and not incorporated into any demonic device it still seemed to interact with the energies being given off by the portal. It a movement borne of panic and need Sparda forced himself to break into a run despite the pain it was causing him by aggravating his serious wound. Down, down, down the corridors and staircases he ran in an attempt to get as far as he could from the portal in the hope that it would collapse once he got far enough away. Mundus' laughter echoed down the hallways as the Lord seemed to think it most amusing to see the Traitor scurry along in such a pointless venture.

It was with this laughter that Xander's senses took on the familiar distorted feel as the world around him once again shifted to some when and somewhere else. This time when things finally settled he found himself drenched in the rain staggering towards a blue house no more than a block or two away from him. However whether or not he would make it there was unknown for each step seemed to take tremendous effort to do with each step harder than the last. His right hand was clutching his wound in an attempt to slow the bleeding and keep his organs on the inside but there seemed to be a certain resignation to the grip of the hand. When finally Sparda reached the front walkway in front of the house that he had been walking towards the front door opened and in the doorway stood a blond woman in her late twenties or early thirties. A fearful hand seemed to rise up and cover her mouth as she took him in and a single tear fell unbidden from her right eye. The sight of her seemed to relieve Sparda in some way but it also broke the concentration he had been using to stay on his feet causing him to stumble and fall to his hands and knees. A fit of coughing overcame him as his body finally began to fall apart in ways his spirit and mind could no longer prevent. Blood dripped from his mouth and as his strength left him he allowed himself to roll onto his back and stare up at the storm filled sky.

"Jessica! Get the First Aid Kit! Quick!" came a woman's voice that sounded like it belonged in the company of angels.

It was only a few moments later that the owner of that voice came into view as the blonde woman with golden bangs framing her face pulled him into her lap.

"Sparda! Sparda! Stay with me! We'll get you patched up and then everything will be alright!" , the woman whose name he now knew to be Eva said to him with a fragile reassuring smile, "You've come back from worse than this before but if you ever come home this beaten up again I swear you're sleeping on the couch for a month!"

This caused a smile to appear on his face although he knew that he would have to tell Eva the hurtful truth now while he still had the strength.

"No my angel. I fear that the time has finally come for the Dark Knight Sparda to finally pass on." , Sparda said with the pain on her face being mirrored in his own spirit, "I know this will be hard for you my love but you must go on! Vergil and Dante will need you now more than ever! Please! Promise me that you will go on living for them!"

"I promise! I promise!" Eva declared although she seemed on the verge of breaking down into tears.

"One more thing my love." , Sparda said as he reached down and with a jerk broke his amulet into two pieces, "When they are old enough give these to our sons. It will be up to them to keep them safe from those who would wish the demons of old to return."

Eva took the two pieces, one in each hand, nodding that she would do as he asked as she did not trust her voice to work amidst this all consuming grief and sorrow. A sorrow which would most certainly soon deepen as Xander could feel the strength of life evaporating from his/Sparda's body even quicker than before. As the world turned to black and the Dark Knight Sparda passed on from this world the last thing he would consciously hear was his wife screaming in anguish. However with his departure the dream did not end for the Zeppo but rather fantasy and reality begin to become one as somehow he could perceive his own heartbeat in the real world beginning to slow as well. Frantically he tried to escape from this dream, certain that once he awoke his heart would beat normally again, but no matter how hard he tried to escape the inky blackness of death around him it would not release him to return to the world of the living. However that did not mean he just gave up but rather it induced him to fight even harder as he refused to lose the things that mattered the most to him. It was all for naught however for as the seconds past his struggles became weaker and weaker. It became harder to concentrate or even focus on what he was doing. Eventually all resistance ceased and the young man known as Alexander LaVelle Harris passed on from this world to whatever existence there was for him in the great beyond.

The Great Cathedral, One Hour Before Sunset 

"Now let's see how my young back-up plan is doing." Arkham said as he finished teleporting into the Great Cathedral from the hotel where he and Vergil staying.

They had arrived earlier than expected on their flight but rather than go straight to the site where the Temen-ni-gru was said to reside according to his exhaustive research Vergil had decided that they would wait until nightfall before proceeding. For a moment he had been slightly upset at this change in plans but then he recalled the young Harris boy and figured that Vergil's decision fit in nicely with his plans. So after some minor checking up on the other players in this story he had finally decided to go and see how his experiment had fared. Upon laying eyes on the boy's prone form a frown formed on his lips as he had expected the young man to be awake by this point and no doubt using his unique American vocabulary to demand immediate release. Moving closer to survey the form strapped to the platform he was initially pleased with what he saw. The merely slim body the boy had possessed before was now gone and replaced by a muscled figure in peak physical condition. This no doubt was the result of the body burning stored fat for energy in order to facilitate the transformation as well as the fact the demonic energy that had been infused into the young man would have automatically made him battle ready. Most of the lacerations and areas where the implants had been integrated into the rest of the body were gone leaving only pink lines to show that they had been there at all.

However it was when he reached the boy's head that he became certain that the experiment had turned out to be a failure. While slightly changed his face still bore a closer resemblance to the person he was rather than something closer to either Vergil or Dante. His hair was still dark brown and he was fairly certain that if he peeled back an eyelid he would find the all too human brown eyes rather than the blue ones in the sockets of the Sons of Sparda. Add to that the missing rise and fall of a body taking in air and it became clear that like the others the strain of the procedure had proved to much for their fragile human bodies to endure. Frustrated that all his hard work had apparently been for nothing he picked up the tray that held his medical and arcane instruments and threw them across the room with a scream of anger. While the instruments themselves were shattered the tray itself became embedded in the wall and vibrated for a few moments with the power behind the toss. Taking deep breaths he calmed himself down and composed his face into a stoic face forcing his emotions down. It would not benefit him one bit if Vergil noticed his sudden change in behavior and besides that this had been a mere precaution rather than the main act. He still had two genuine Sons of Sparda to use in the reaching of his goals and he was sure that with a little covert nudging from him Dante would reach the final chamber in the state of being needed. With one final sigh of disappointment he teleported away to wait for the time when Vergil was ready to reactivate the great tower. He was sure seeing that happen would dispel this found mood quickly enough.

The brimstone that accompanied the mad priest's departure faded swiftly as the minutes passed and not a sound was heard nor a movement seen anywhere in the chamber. It was quiet as a tomb and a tomb it might very well have been for one of the founding members of the Scooby gang of Sunnydale. Arkham had not been wrong when he proclaimed that Xander was dead for if you compared his state of being with any definition of dead in any dictionary it would have been a dead on match. However as a ray of heavenly blue light manifested next to the platform on which the young man rested and the twinkling stars that accompanied the light coalesced into a person it didn't take a genius to see that the young Harris' fate was about to be altered. The being was obviously female from the curves that could be seen and it wore a royal blue hooded cloak that made it almost impossible to discern more about who it was. For a moment the woman seemed to examine the dead body before her as if her reason for coming here was somehow being doubted all of a sudden. However with an atmosphere of resolve the woman's right arm extended out from the confines of the cloak until the flat palm hovered directly above Xander's chest. Not more than a second passed before the hand began to take on a pure white glow that no special effects genius could ever hope to match in a million years. For several minutes it stayed there to pour its light down on the lifeless form before it but when the light faded and the arm was withdrawn the lifeless body drew breath and was lifeless no more.

The heart that had been stilled now beat once more but returning to life was not the only change that had occurred. During the moments that the pure white light shone down on him his hair had begun to pale and by the end of the revival it was no longer brown but pure snow white. However the mysterious being knew that she did not have time to take pride in her work for she knew he would soon regain consciousness. Still she felt it necessary to say something to him ere she left and with a barely visible smile she said just one thing to him.

"Alright you lazy goofball! Time to get off your fat butt and save the world again."

With that she vanished with a flash of light leaving the newly revived Xander Harris to wake up alone. His eyelids did flutter and when his consciousness finally returned he opened his eyes fully to reveal two glowing crimson eyes that spoke of a nature not of the human race. However this demonic glow faded soon after but instead of the brown eyes he had been born with blue ones gazed up at the ceiling in their place. It was then that another Son of Sparda was born into the world.

He was Alexander LaVelle Harris no more.

Now he was Alexander, the Son of Sparda.


	2. Changes and HOT dates

Note: First let me express how sorry I am that I have left this fanfic unattended for so long. Last year my PS2 went Kaput and it would have taken me roughly the price of a brand new PS2 to repair it. In the end I decided that I would just wait until the PS3 came out and get that rather than spend my money on an older system. Due to this though I no longer had DMC3 to draw info on and could only utilize information from walkthroughs and which up until recently I thought was insufficient. However in the last month though I came to the conclusion that I could feasibly write about the Temen-ni-gru and the rest of the DMC3 game without the game itself since there was no reason to believe that the section of the tower that Xander entered would be anything like the sections that Dante fought through. Because of this realization I now had much more freedom to work with and as long as I made sure that certain key areas were pretty damn close to the way they were in the game I wouldn't get flamed too badly by the canon mongers. In any case here is a new chapter fresh from my warped mind for you to enjoy so WELCOME TO MY NIGHTMARE AHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA… **Cough, Cough, A-HEM!** Well you get the idea.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

The Great Cathedral, Five Minutes Later 

_O-kayyy! First thing on the Xander L. Harris to-do list is find the nearest pharmacy and get some **extra** strength Tylenol._ Xander thought to himself as his breathing and vision finally settled into something that matched normal parameters.

Bringing his right hand to his face to pinch the bridge of his nose he took no notice of the fact that it was still bound by the same chains that he had been unable to break free of less than twenty-four hours ago. The chain snapped not even a second after it had been made taunt by the young American's movements and hadn't slowed down those movements one little bit. Still this should not be construed as him being unobservant but rather a sign as to how hard his head was pounding. While he himself had never had a hangover he had a feeling that this was what it felt like to wake up after an all night drink-fest. While this would in no way affect how he saw his parents, the lousy drunks, it did provide him with some extra incentive never to drink any beverage with alcohol in it as long as he lived. Once he had massaged his brain back into a more reasonable size he dropped his right hand down onto his lap and it was then that he noticed the broken chain dangling off of a metal band on his wrist. His quickly recovering mind didn't take long to add the evidence together and let him know that he had somehow managed to snap the chain that had been around his right hand. Looking down at the part of the chain that was still connected to the stone slab beneath him he confirmed that the metal did indeed look as though it had snapped rather than say been cut. Knowing that when he lost consciousness he was nowhere near strong enough to snap a heavy duty looking chain like this using brute strength along he decided to try the chain tying his left hand to the stone slab and see if he could break it as well.

_Well that's something I didn't expect would happen._ Xander thought with a remarkably calm voice as it took barely any effort at all for him to break the chain binding his left arm.

Deciding that was proof enough for him to believe that he could get off the slab easily he wasted no time in yanking on the chains binding his legs and jumping off the smooth surface of the slab that he had experienced so much pain on. He knew it was odd that he was able to snap the chains like that considering how thick they looked but brushed if off as shoddy workmanship or maybe an after affect of whatever Father Baldy was trying to do. In any case he got off of the slab and the first thing he noticed, aside from the fact that he was alone, was the fact that his pants were pretty much ruined. Almost completely turned red by his own blood, which had likely ran down his body when Father Baldy had been cutting him up, it now smelled like most demons did after Buffy hacked them to pieces. Add the smell to the disgusting feel to them when he moved and finding some new clothes went right to the top of his to-do list with getting some Tylenol moving down to number two. Looking around for a way outside that didn't involve breaking through the stain glass window that while above the surface was also likely quite a ways above ground as well. What he spotted while doing this wasn't an exit but it did solve his clothes problem.

Off to the far side of where he was sat a table and on that table was a stack of clothes and the weapons Father Baldy had use as bait to lure him into that demon free for all in Sunnydale. Not exactly trusting of the psycho's fashion sense given what he did for 'fun' he nevertheless decided that he didn't exactly have much choice unless he wanted to attract some seriously unwanted attention all the way back home. Walking over he took a look at what was on top of the pile and found that it was a white leather trench coat with black inner lining, black buttons and black cuffs just to top it all off. Not exactly the colors he would have chosen but at least he wouldn't be accused of being a Deadboy impersonator if Buffy and the others wound up seeing him with it on. Plus there was the awesome fact that he didn't own **anything** leather given how expensive it was. Who knew? He might just wear it around school if there was the slightest chance that it might boost his image among his peers.

Putting it aside for the moment he looked to see what was next in the stack of clothes and was both surprised and embarrassed to find it was a pair of black silk boxer shorts. The thought of that mad preacher picking this out for him made him shudder at the images it brought to his mind but after pushing said thoughts aside he had to admit that if his pants were a bloody mess than chances are so too was his underwear. While not exactly a believer of the whole 'make sure you have a clean pair of underwear on in case you die' thing he suspected that he had lost control of his bladder during the torture session so it would be better to risk a clean pair than wear a stinky & dirty pair. Looking around briefly to make sure that there wasn't anybody looking he quickly yanked off his dirty pants and underwear. Not wasting a second he grabbed the silk boxers and slipped them on immediately and that was when he noticed that his legs were definitely more toned than he remembered. From there he noticed his arm and then his chest and then before you knew it he was finally clued into the possibility that maybe the chains had been good quality merchandise.

_That's just plain crazy talk!_ He thought to himself as he grabbed the black leather pants that had been beneath the boxers and slipped them on, _Just because I've suddenly put on some muscle doesn't mean I'm strong enough to snap solid steel without trying. After all if looks determined how strong you were then Buffy would be about as strong as any other teenage girl!_

He quickly rationalized it off as one of those adrenaline things he heard so much about where people temporarily gained superhuman strength in emergency situations. Given how much pain Father Baldy had caused him it was likely that all the adrenaline from that had just weakened the chains during the madman's bit of 'fun'. Yeah, he had just weakened them before during all the screaming, that was all it was.

Doing up the button and pulling up the zipper of the pants he cringed at how they reminded him of Lord Forehead's usual attire but decided to endure it at least until he found something more to his liking. The next article of clothing for his consideration almost immediately got the negative as it was a white poet's shirt with poofy sleeves and frilly cuffs. Obviously Mr. Insanity was going with some kind of white knight ensemble idea that made him wonder just how many demons Angelus had rattled off his chosen knick name for the founding male member of the Scooby gang. Now he had one more reason why to hate the asshole and make plans to covertly dust the vamp without Buffy being the wiser. Growling in anger he debated for a moment whether to toss the shirt or just make some quick alterations to make the thing more modern and manly. Picking it up by the shoulders he held it out in front of him trying to decide which parts to rip off and which parts would be okay to keep. Fortunately a brief flashback to a show he had been watching on TV a few days earlier gave him an idea and with a quick yank on both sleeves he was done. The tears had been clean so he didn't have to worry about it 'looking' like he'd ripped the sleeves off and it looked much better than it had before. He had gotten the idea from the shirt/vest thing that Kevin Sorbo wore on 'Hercules: The Legendary Journeys' and just modified the poet's shirt to more closely resemble it. Slipping it on he debated for a moment whether or not to leave it untucked or to tuck it into his pants but in the end decided to leave it out.

Last but not least was a pair of black combat boots that looked like they were stolen straight from a military supply depot. This was probably the only item he didn't have a problem with as he had worn a pair like them during the whole 'turn-into-your-costume' Halloween thing a year or so ago. They weren't exactly the most comfortable in terms of footwear but they were sturdy and were built for combat. Of all the things that Father Hairless had left for him these were the only things he could say he approved of without hesitation. Slipping them on he tied the laces good and tight to make sure the boots stayed on but not so tight that they'd cut off the circulation of blood to his feet.

_Okay clothes accounted for and put on for the most part._ Xander thought as he looked over to where the twin kodachis and revolvers lay on the table, _Time to arm my self just in case I run into any trouble on my way home._

Fortunately Mr. Clean's evil brother had gotten holsters from the revolvers as well as belts for them as well as the sheathed kodachis so he could strap them around his waist. It took him about a minute or two to decide on how the two sets of weapons should be placed before he settled on putting them both close together on his hips. While this might seem a bit awkward to some he thought it was highly efficient to have both types of weapons close together. With them set up this way he wouldn't have to reach far to draw a revolver or unsheathe a kodachi and it might leave the enemy guessing as far as what weapon he'd use next. Still he tested his theory a few times just to be safe and wound up having to adjust the belt the revolvers were on so they hung a bit lower on him since he found that the handle often bumped up against the kodachis when he drew them. Once he was satisfied that neither weapon would interfere with the drawing/unsheathing of the other he slipped on the trench coat and began to look for an exit.

Unfortunately that search ended almost as soon as it began because in less than a minute he determined that the only way Dr. Evil's Dad got out of the room was using some kind of magic and knowing the Harris luck it would be magic only Baldy could perform. That left him with the unenviable last resort of blowing out the stain-glass window and hoping that he could climb his way down to solid ground without killing himself. Drawing both his revolvers he began firing at the glass and blew himself a nice hole in it for him to climb through. Once the last tinkles of falling glass faded away he moved over to the wall beneath the hole he had made and began to climb up. It was an easier climb than he had expected it to be but her mostly attributed that to the incentive of freedom and the fact that there were hand and footholds in all the right places. Once at the top he took a look outside and for the first time got a chance to see where in world he actually was and estimate how long it would take him to get back home. It had been something of a worry for him ever since he had come too after being hit with that tranquilizer dart. It wasn't exactly easy to tell how long you've been unconscious when knocked out by unnatural means so he had no idea how long he had been out or where Father Baldy had taken him during that time. Given the lack of doors back in that cathedral-like cave he suspected that Sir Hairless had either teleported in or phased through solid matter. His bet was on teleportation since he doubted phasing through matter could have gotten Kurt Angle's cousin very far away from Sunnydale and he **knew** that there was no place like this anywhere near the Hellmouth since this was definitely something G-Man would have been worrying about. If it was teleportation though it would mean that he could literally be anywhere in the world since he had no clue as to what sort of limits Baldy had on how far he could teleport.

_Looks like I might have to call up G-Man and ask him to loan me enough cash for a bus ride home._ Xander thought to himself as he took in the city a short distance away from him.

From what he could see at this distance it looked to be your typical American city with a smidgen of eighteenth century architecture for aesthetic appeal. There were no landmarks or anything that could tell him exactly what city he was near so he could be all the way on the east coast if his luck was as bad as it usually was where weirdness was concerned. He knew that it would probably be quicker if he could con G-Man into buying him a plane ticket back to California but given how the gang had been treating him lately he'd probably be lucky just for the cross country bus ticket. After all Giles and the gang had been trying to get him fray adjacent with the whole slaying thing so the gang probably wouldn't be thrilled with having to pony up the money for a bus ticket much less a plane ticket. True he figured that Giles was probably only tentatively in favor of getting him out of the fighting but when you added Buffy, Faith and the others into the mix you had a group that was beginning to see him as an annoying groupie. He had gotten a little on edge when he first caught wind that they were going to try and push him out of the fighting and wound up doing some pretty stupid things. However after his victory over Jack O' Toole and his buddies he didn't need to prove anything to anyone but himself and he had done that in spades as far as his ego was concerned. For him all that was left was to prove to the rest of the gang that he belonged on the front lines with the rest of them.

_At the moment though what I have to do is get to the ground without killing myself._ Xander thought as he looked down to where the ground was over twenty feet away, _After all I can't prove anything to the gang if I wind up breaking my neck._

Before he could do anything more in terms of finding a safe way down some higher power decided to solve the problem for him as all of a sudden the ground began to shake like the mother of all earthquakes was starting up. Given how suddenly it started he wasn't able to brace himself for it and thanks to the less than suitable surface he was standing on there was only one possible outcome. He lost his balance and fell right off the edge and plummeted to the ground below. He made a half-hearted attempt to at least land feet down but the short distance to the ground combined with the unexpected nature of his current crisis only made it so that he didn't land on his head.

His ass on the other hand was not so fortunate.

Needless to say the pain he felt when his backside touched down was not pleasant but when he finally sat up with his eyes looking in the direction of the city all thoughts about his sore butt vanished to be replaced with something else entirely. Erupting from the very center of town was a tower of monumental proportions that made the leaning tower of Piza or the Washington monument look like a hood ornament by comparison. The only thing those two tourist attractions might have over the mammoth structure was that they were probably in better condition as there were several sections of the tower missing. Up and up it went until finally it came to a rest at a height that made it a serious threat to passing aircraft for sure. When he strained his eyes though to try and make out some of the spots on the tower that were harder to make out something seemed to click in his head and an image imposed itself on top of the tower. From what he could tell it seemed to be an image of what the tower originally looked like before the landlord let it fall into disrepair. One thing he knew for sure though was that it was most definitely not of the good and the giant whale like demon that was flying around it now only served to confirm this suspicion.

_What do you suppose the chances are that Father cue ball is behind that?_ He asked himself as he had a sinking feeling manifesting in his gut.

He shook his head in frustration as he knew that the fact that Father Baldy had brought him to a unknown cathedral for some ceremony and then seeing a tower spring up out of the ground a few hours later couldn't be a coincidence. Either the ceremony/ritual that Scarface had used him for had caused the tower to rise up or Vin Diesal's ugly uncle had intended to use him for something in that tower. One way or another he was connected to what was now going on so the thing he had to decide was what he was going to do now. On the one hand no matter what had happened to him between getting hit with that tranquilizer dart and waking up after Two Eyes played doctor with him he was nowhere near good enough to take on this problem alone. On the other it was pretty obvious that something big was on the go and if it wasn't stopped soon then it might become to messy for anyone to stop a few days from now when people with the know-how and reputations showed up. Then again with all the portents and visions the gang got back in Sunnydale before something seriously hellmouthy happened there was a good chance that there might already be someone here to stop this 'End of Days' scheme of Father Baldy's.

_Then again there might not be which brings us back to where it all started._ Xander thought to himself with a frown, _To stick my neck out like an idiot or to run away as fast as I can like any sane person would?"_

With a sigh he began to walk towards the tower and began to wonder for the umpteenth time whether he actually **had** any survival instinct at all.

_**One Hour Later, The Streets of the Unknown City, **_

Heading in the Direction of the Tower 

_Looks like there were some warning signs happening around here before the big tower pop up happened._ Xander thought to himself as he rode the motorcycle he had 'borrowed' down the deserted streets, _This city is emptier than the local liquor after Dad gets his bi-weekly paycheck._

When he had started his trot towards the city to deal with the potential apocalypse that had been dropped in his lap he had thought that it would take him two hours to get to the base of the tower. After all even at his best run he knew it would take a lot of time to cover the distance between him and pillar from hell. Fortunately though he had the good luck to find a neon yellow Ninja 250R motorcycle in a ditch apparently abandoned by the owner when he/she tried to leave town. He had been skeptical about whether or not it would run or even if the keys were still there but apparently he had at least one goddess of luck on his side because the keys were present and the bike purred like a kitten when he turned the key. With the aide of some wheels it had cut the time it would have taken him to walk to the city by more than half and hopefully would be good thing if this turned out to be a 'the clock is ticking' sort of apocalypse.

However as he turned right and headed down a street he thought would take him right to the base of the tower he found he had two obstacles to overcome first. Problem number one was a group of scythe wielding demons dressed in red with heads that looked like they were related to the Cryptkeeper. There were six in total and had apparently heard him coming as they were all doing a really creepy laugh thing as well as stalking towards him. Problem number two though was that there was a sizeable hill of debris blocking the street that would keep him from reaching the tower. It was a little over ten feet tall and blocked the street completely off so there was no little crack or clear area he could squeeze himself through.

Guess its time to get resourceful! He thought as he stood up on the seat of the bike, while keeping his hands on the handlebars, he waited until the last possible moment before leaping backwards into the air. With all the subtlety of train wreck the bike slammed into the middle of the Crimson Reapers, as he had dubbed them, and that set things up for the next part of his plan. Pulling out both guns from their holsters he aimed for the center of the engine of the motorcycle and let loose with a volley of six bullets from each gun. He knew that a professional would have been able to pull this trick off with only one or two bullets but considering he was pretty much an amateur at this he wanted to make certain he hit the jackpot. Luckily his shots hit pay dirt since after the third bullet hit the target the bike exploded as the fuel in the gas tank was ignited and the blast destroyed some of the demons while disorienting the rest. Landing on the ground with a slight backwards skid he went on the offensive to dispatch the disoriented Crimson Reapers before they could do anything offensive first.

_Of course their looks and smell are plenty offensive already so I guess I'm stuck in second place already._ He thought with a smirk as he holstered his guns and pulled out his two kodachi for close quarters combat.

A thrust from the right kodachi started things off as he impaled the first of four Reapers through the head with the blade before he spun around clockwise to slash at Reaper number two taking one of its hands off. He didn't even bother to appreciate the sight of the first scythe wielding demon turning to dust/ash before he parried an attack by Reaper two in order to execute a decapitating horizontal slash with the right kodachi. However by the time he'd dispatched two of the Crimson Reapers the remaining two had come to their senses and began to prowl around him looking for an opening. Slowing things down he kept his arms loose and the grip he had on his weapons firm as he waited for the demons to make their move. He knew the weapons he wielded had a reach disadvantage when compared with the scythes of the Reapers and that they were designed to be more defensive than offensive so attacking now that he had lost the element of surprise would not be a smart move.

A cackle of distorted laughter was the only warning he got before one of the demons, just on the edge of his field of vision, attacked with a vicious slash no doubted intended to cleave him in half. Rolling with the attack but in the opposite direction he managed to bring himself into prime position to deliver a devastating double diagonal slash with both swords resulting in the Reaper looking like quite the ashhole. That left only one demon to deal with and this one didn't seem as sure of itself as it had been when it had three buddies to back it up. It was then that the former Zeppo's mind caught up with his body as he realized that he had managed to dispatch three fast and deadly demons with skill bordering on what one would expect from a Slayer. Considering he'd only been in the demon bashing business for a little over two years and hadn't received any real training that was somewhat disturbing.

_Just what did that bald freak do to me?!_ He thought with a little fear as he began to wonder just how deep the changes went in him.

However he was kept from any further thought when the final demon decided to go for an all out assault charging him with double the speed the previous one had. With no time to dodge and not wanting to try and stop that much momentum using brute strength alone he dropped to one knee allowing the scythe to pass over his head before putting his left kodachi into position and letting the Reaper's own momentum do the rest. Before the feral demon even knew what had happened it collapsed into a pile of ashes on the ground leaving only a troubled member of the Scooby gang kneeling in the middle of the street.

_Father clean had better have a good explanation for all this **AND** a way to change me back or I'm gonna introduce my kodachi to his colon in a very painful manner!_ He thought as he stood up and moved to begin climbing over the wall of debris that had been the second problem he had to deal with after the Crimson Reapers.

Grumbling the entire time he slowly began his climb up the mound of trash and debris while trying very hard not to think about how 'not human' he had become since first waking up in that damn half assed cave cathedral.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

Within the Temen-ni-gru, Same Time 

"What?" Arkham asked an empty room as he sensed something on the periphery of his senses that he did not expect at all.

He had been on his way down to the lower levels of the tower, both to drop an anvil sized hint onto Dante's head as Jester and make sure his 'daughter' kept pace with the rest of them, when out of nowhere a ping of a familiar essence touched his mind. That brought him to where he was right now running continual arcane scans to confirm what his basic occult senses were telling him. Somehow against all odds his pet project was not only alive once more but felt almost identical to Dante and Vergil in that the boy felt like a Son of Sparda. His mind whirred in concentration as he tried to figure out what had happened and why his alterations had taken this long to go into effect. In the end he could only presume that the transformation required a sort of 'death and rebirth' period before the alterations could take full effect. In any case his replacement piece for Dante was now in play so he'd have to cut some of his visits with either Dante or Mary short in order to properly guide his pawn through the labyrinth that was the Temen-ni-gru.

It might be best though to observe how he deals with Paine first in order to measure just how strong the changes of taken to his body. He thought as he teleported to a window on the fifth floor where he would have a bird's eye view of the battleground where the demon of hellfire waited unseen for unwary travelers attempting to gain entry to the tower. The structure had guardians and enforcers scattered throughout its corridors and chambers with each charged with protecting some vital point. While none of them were beyond a Son of Sparda's ability to defeat it would require a considerable portion of their strength and that was exactly what he wanted. The heat of battle would bring the devils in them to the peak of power and at the same time weaken them so that when he chose to reveal his true agenda they would be easy to deal with. Against two Sons of Sparda, both rested and at full strength, he would be no match but against two that had been worn down and weakened they would prove to be little challenge. As for his pawn, well, maybe he'd keep the boy around for entertainment value or perhaps as his subordinate depending on what he decided upon opening the portal and obtaining what he sought.

_In any case here comes the young man now._ He thought as the pure white leather duster made it easy to pick the boy out of the devastated environment, _Time to see how he fares with this first test of his prowess._

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

Approaching the Entrance to the Temen-ni-gru, Five Minutes Later 

_Somehow it looks **a lot** more intimidating up close than it did back at the cave cathedral._ Xander thought as he looked up at the monstrous tower that had sprung up out of the ground a little over an hour ago.

Even with the pieces missing and the other numerous signs of damage the place still looked to be mighty intimidating and tres evil. Evil enough that he was beginning to question the sanity of his choice to try and stop this impending apocalypse all on his own. After all new powers aside he had been a support player since the very day he had learned about the darkness of the world. It was a completely different situation to be the star of the show instead one of the supporting characters. For one thing whether or not the good guys one often came down to whether or not you, specifically, managed to beat your assigned bad guy or came up with the right plan. His foiling of the plans of the undead O'Toole and his pals may have gone a long way towards boosting his confidence but paled in comparison to stopping something on this level. For a moment he considered just turning around and getting the hell outta dodge before one of the demons that were surely inside decided to have a nice light Xander-snack.

_Then again Father Baldy's in there and unless I want to show off my new look to Buffy and Faith, the Slayers, back in Sunnydale I don't really have much of a choice do I? _He thought rhetorically as he resumed his trot towards the entrance about two football fields away.

He made it about halfway before the ground began to shake like the tower was getting ready to sink back into the ground taking half the city with it. Instead of something going down pillars of flame began to rocket out of the ground all around him creating a circular wall of fire that prevented him from either retreating or proceeding into the tower. Unsheathing his two kodachi and bringing them into a ready position he waited for whoever or whatever was responsible for the pyrotechnics that continued to burn all around him. He didn't have to wait long before a form appeared from within the flames and a distinctly well curved female form it was **indeed**. A long leg that went **ALL** the way up stepped out of the flames clad in a leather boot that covered the appendage up to about mid-thigh. This was soon joined by another shapely leg before they joined together to some nice hips clad in a crimson thong before revealing a toned stomach and then a leather bodice done in warrior style. Framing the ample… endowments… were two firm yet supple arms wearing those silk women's glove things that almost went all the way up to the shoulders. Now normally at this point he'd be pinching himself to make sure he hadn't slipped into one of his happy places but thankfully there were two elements of the person in front of him that quickly told him he wasn't dreaming.

First was the fact that she had a cat-o-nine tails in her hand that was made of a living flame that swayed back and forth lazily like a cat's tail. As much as he liked babes in very little leather he was not into the whole S&M thing or the pain that the flamin' whip could probably cause him if he wasn't careful. After all it was bad enough just being hit by a normal whip but one that could burn as it lashed through your skin would be agony. Sure you likely wouldn't bleed to death since any cuts or lacerations would be cauterized but it'd be painful as hell. All in all not something he'd dream of even on his worst day.

The other fact was that the woman was definitely a demon with long literally flaming red hair, cat eyes and sharp teeth that definitely belonged in the jaws of a feline rather than a person. Top it all off with orange skin and you had a woman that was literally on fire and most definitely of the demonic no matter what way you looked at it. Given his past experience with demon women he had a pretty good idea how this was going to start out and mentally prepared himself for it.

"Well, well, well if it isn't a half devil piece of trash!" she said in a predatory tone of voice that held a mix of lust and malice in it, "Oh and you have the taste of that traitor Sparda in you. This is going to be even more pleasurable than I thought it'd be!"

_Sparda?_ He thought before asking, "Well I'm all for giving a pretty lady some pleasure but somehow I doubt it'd be mutual pleasure so I'm afraid I'm gonna have to take a rain check on that. Maybe next time?"

"Oh and I went to all this trouble to get you hot under the collar!" she said saucily gesturing provocatively at the wall of flame that surrounded them, "I'll make it a quickie then. After all I doubt a half-breed like yourself has the stamina to last very long once I get started."

"Insulting my manly endurance?" he asked rhetorically with a bit of a frown at the demoness' questioning of his ability to last with a female, "I **think NOT!**"

Charging headlong towards the girl cat demon he hurried to put his 'get in close so she can't use her whip' strategy into action. He got to about the halfway point before the female demon lashed out with the whip and tore two gashes into his chest with her whip causing him to instinctively retreat to get back outside of the range of the weapon. Hissing a bit as he pressed a hand to the vaguely X shaped mark the whip had made he watched in a kind of amazement as the wounds rapidly began to heal. However that was about as much as he could do before he sensed an approaching source of heat and had to go all 'how-low-can-you-go' backwards to avoid being whipped across the face by the demonness.

"Bad Boy! Don't you know it's not nice to ignore a lady like that?" Firecat asked playfully as she twirled the whip about her like one of those ribbon things female gymnasts use during one of their routines.

"Sorry babe! Let me make it up to you." He replied before sheathing his kodachi and drawing his guns to let loose a hail of bullets in the demon woman's direction.

Unfortunately that appeared to be just the response she was looking for because with a combination of limber acrobatics and efficient use of her cat-o-nine tails whip she managed to either avoid or destroy the bullets he was firing at her. She laughed like she was having the time of her life before sexily coming to a stop and taking on a sexy but dominating pose while looking at him.

"A bit better son of Sparda but still not the… trick… I was hoping to get out of you." She said as she used a finger to trace an outline of her sexy curves, "Then again what more can I expect from someone whose only **half** the devil Sparda was when he was still alive."

"Oh c'mon now! Don't you know that a smart guy always saves the best tricks for last!" he said before making it look like he was charging her head on again.

The truth of the matter was that this initial play was just a ruse to make her cocky because he knew what she'd do then and was prepared for it. Just as he reached the point he'd been at beforehand the flamin' lioness lashed out with her whip intending to add another criss-cross of slash marks on his chest to replace the ones that had faded away moments ago. Instead though he twisted out of the way of the slash and kept on running towards his target while holstering one gun in order to unsheathe a kodachi. Diving into a roll in order to avoid another attack from the whip he got back to his feet quickly in order to fire two shots at the arm that wielded the whip. Just like he planned the she-demon dropped the whip in pain leaving her wide open for the second part of his 'by-the-seat-of-his-pants' plan. Closing in he had to slide to the side to evade an attempted slashing by her with claws the popped out of the fingers of her uninjured arm but all that did was give her a couple more moments of peace before he parried a second slash and rammed his kodachi as far into her gut as he could. To this all she could do was look down at the blade was stuck in her gut and gape for a moment in surprise. Then she did something that was kind of unexpected in that she smiled like most people do after eating a particularly satisfying meal or had a **real** good roll in the sack.

"That was exquisite Son of Sparda." She said as the fire that was her hair began to slowly dim, "Let me show you my thanks."

With that she laid a kiss on him that was, fortunately, only metaphorically searing hot before her body turned into a glowing orange sphere of light and floated down to his belt. With a brief flash of light a whip handle appeared on the belt tucked neatly into its own little holster-thingy with a ruby embedded into one end that glowed with an internal fire. Sheathing his kodachi and holstering his gun he took the whip handle off of his belt and examined it for a moment before he did the first logical thing he could think of and willed the fire tendrils of the whip to appear. As if the weapon was now an extension of his body the tentacles of flame shot out from the handle and danced a little in mid-air before falling to the ground like a normal whip. Deciding to give this new weapon a test drive he began to lash out at the surrounding landscape using every move he had ever seen either Zorro or Indiana Jones use in their movies or TV shows. To top it all off he spun the whip over his head to build up the maximum amount of momentum before bringing it crashing down to the ground hard enough that the shockwaves of flame it produced snuffed out the wall of flame that had been erected by the she-demon.

"Nice! Ms. Fire Cat might have been a pain to deal with but she left me a great parting gift." He said as he willed the ropes of flame to vanish and then put the whip handle back on his belt, "Hope they're all as good lookin' as she was cause that's about the only thing that'll make this little adventure enjoyable."

With that he walked up and entered the tower of evil that had been his destination from the moment it popped out of the ground and announced itself as the demonic equivalent of Grand Central Station.


End file.
